The Mind, Heart, and Imaginations of

There is always a doubt, a hidden agenda, a suspicion, an alterior motive to be seen by the carnal mind. Nothing is pure, especially the notion of God and religion.

The very first tactic Satan used on Eve in the garden kjv@Genesis:3 was suggestively replace the notion of God's purity with a suspicion of His less than pure motives:

...didn't God say you would die if ...you shall not die...God knows that in the day that you eat thereof....

Eve percieved that she'd better wise up, open her eyes to what was "really" going on. This was carnal in that day, it continues to be carnal to this day.

Today everything is relative... what I believe, what you believe, what we believe collectively; all that there is is what we believe... and that is only relative. Anyone that says anything different simply has alterior motives... So they say!

The carnal mind is not and cannot be subject to anything other than itself. It will justify itself every step of the way no matter how distant and self destructive it becomes.

(We see this time and time again amongst addicts and abusers and criminals and why should it be any different amongst any of us?)

It is totaly beyond our carnal comprehension why God would have to send his Son down to suffer upon a wooden cross to "slay" (as if a furocious dragon) the "Enmity" (see kjv@Ephesians:2:16) that exists within us when for all that we can see are the couple "indiscresions" and "boo boo's" we've individually made.

The "Enmity" clearly means little or nothing to us. The carnal mind becomes it's own god, determines it's own right and wrong, and judges the very God of all creation as being delinquent. This is clearly where God Himself draws the line.

It is very hard to hide oneself from an omnipresent God, you really have to intensely want to do it in order to suffer the foolishness of trying. One has to use a mental facility that barely has the ability to take itself out of auto pilot long enough to speak an intelligable sentence and use it in a fashion that it was ill designed to function as.

When it is said in kjv@1Corinthians:3:19 that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God, it means exactly that; foolishness.

It was foolish for Adam and Eve to try to hide themselves in the bushes. It was foolish for them to try to cover up their shame... really foolish.

It is just as foolish for us to try to explain God away, or to create a god that more closely suits our fleshly desires, or even to make our god get along with all the other gods the carnal mind offers up. We do this because that is simply what the carnal mind does... it is all that it ever does.

We are not hiding ourselves though...how foolish to think that we are.

Note: this is not just the heathen that the scriptures are talking of here, this human trait is highlighted for us in the mindset of His chosen Israel (kjv@Deuteronomy:31:21). The mindset was exactly the same amongst Gentile and Hebrew (only to be placed under the conviction of the law) up until the cross of Jesus.

Conform or Transform?

kjv@Romans:12:2@ And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The picture that I am begining to see is that of a believer who has a choice to make. He or She stand at a fork in the road where:

On the one hand they believe that Jesus has slain the "Enmity". The oppurtunity is there for them to personally take full advantage of that by the renewing their mind.

On the other hand there is the world. Their entire life has been spent conforming to the carnal mindset; it is all that they know. There are still parts of this that they want to hang on to for comfort's sake.

In front of Him/Her is a sign painted by the Apostle "Be not conformed - Be Transformed"

(The existence of this fork I believe is exhibited in kjv@1Corinthians:3:1-3, and appears to be quite common amongst believers.)

Conformity might be described as the established norm, an exchange, a balance of compromize bettween ourselves and those we must interact with. This is achieved both by the individual and group.

The new mind at first is a mind of total trust and often uncertainty, submission and obedience, which the carnal mind is going to vehemitly object to.

Renewal is not as easy as simply reading a verse and retaining it, it is as difficault as stepping out (even when all carnal instinct is against it)/proving it to be true in your own life/being prepared to receive further correction on it/then having undergone enough of the process be able to prove it true in another's life.

This friends is an effectual faith!

Without knowing the "Enmity", without knowing the "Mercy" and the Living Sacrifice (See MercyOfGod; LivingSacrifice), many believers will remain at this fork comfortably uncommitted.

Notes:

Conforming to authority? Many pride themselves as being a non-conformist or anti-establishment. Hundreds of thousands of young rebel are here in the US being non-conformist by wearing the same goth or punk or gangsta garb as a thousand others, listen to the same cliche music, etc.. Sorry, don't think that this is the transformation Paul speaks of here.